Aves de Sotavento

Venezuela
12.01.230N
67.41.031W

20.6 NM
5.2 Avg
7.4 Max
3.56 Hrs.

We lifted anchors at 10 am and ever so slowly made a downwind sail to Aves de Sotavento. We read books the whole way but occasionally looked up to make sure that we weren’t running into anyone or getting into anyone else’s way.

The highlight of the trip was when Orpailleur caught and landed their first fish. They radioed their success and then proceeded to describe the fish to Dale in an attempt to ascertain whether it was edible or not. As close as he could figure without seeing it, it sounded like a Wahoo! Excellent for the dinner table.

They secured their fish to the side of the boat and then motored up to us. Yep! It was a wahoo. Now for the fun part; learning how to get it from the hook to the pot.

We rounded the northern side of the group of islands known as the Aves de Sotavento and then down the western edge of the bank to a group of 3 small islands. Gerry spotted a slow moving swell and selected the south western side of the middle island and tucked between it and the farthest island in hopes of protection from it.

We anchored in about 14’ of crystal clear water and the anchors set in deep sand on the first try. Both Dale and Gerry jumped in to make sure everything looked good and then swam back to the boats. Gerry said that there was a barracuda as big as he was keeping close to his anchor. Dale spotted a King Helmet that we took several pictures of before returning it to its resting spot beneath our boat.

We lowered the dink, grabbed our books and cheat sheets on identifying fish and the various methods of processing the fish in preparation for the frying pan. Gerry was adamant about the fillet and release method, as he didn’t want anything to do with gutting the fish. I grabbed my camera and off we went.

As it turns out, Nicky is the one credited for catching the fish and they both participated in the cleaning process. Although he didn’t look too good when he first started, Gerry stuck to it and filleted the fish without passing out. I stayed upwind and noticed that it didn’t smell as bad as our tuna had. Maybe fish smell more if you gut them.

Skinning it took a bit of trial and error. Dale started it, but then Gerry took over and finished one side and Nicky did the other. They sliced it into giant steaks and bagged up most of it. They gave us a couple of steaks for our freezer, brought some over to put on the grill for dinner and still have several meals in their freezer.

Now that they are seasoned fishermen, we know that they’ll be eating well on their Pacific crossing. All they need are just a few more lures.

Aves De Barlavento
11.56.777N
67.25.919W

I had a rough night sleeping with my internal power surges, so I went up into the cockpit for some cool air. There was quite a bit of lightening to the south but overhead it was still pretty clear.

In the morning after our chores, we lowered the dinks and joined Orpailleur exploring. We went into the next anchorage and followed a wide channel that went fairly deep across the width of the island. The mangroves trees were loaded with birds; mostly a type of red-footed booby but a few pelicans and frigate birds were also there. Although you are cautioned in the cruising guides to not get too close, a lot of nests are in branches at eye level that extend over the water. All you have to do for a photo is point and shoot.

We meandered back as far as we could go then returned the way we had come. We dinked further down the coast to look at a ruin of a building and met Bob & Jeanie and Phil & Jan who were doing the same thing. We talked briefly with them then proceeded to photograph the ruin from every angle possible and speculate as to whether the structure beside it was a grave or shrine. When our creative sides were exhausted, we walked along the beach to the end just to see what was there.

With this end of the island explored, we dinked back in the direction of our boats and then past them to the other side of the anchorage to go snorkeling. What at treat! There was good light for photographs, a good reef but not as many fish as in Los Roques. By the time the camera had acclimated to the water temp, I had passed some of the best possibilities that had small pieces of stag horn coral alive with nurseries of tiny reef fish. Some of the weensiest parrotfish and sergeant majors we’ve seen to date. Still I managed to snap away in an attempt to catch the slippery little devils and not really get anything different.

By the time my camera was signaling a low battery, Dale was getting cold, so we returned to Palace to run the genset and recharge everyone and everything.

At dinnertime on Orpailleur, we decided to keep on moving, so tomorrow we’ll head west again to the other set of islands that make up the Aves.

Aves De Barlavento,

Venezuela
11.56.777N
67.25.919W

38.1 miles
5.6 Avg.
7.3 Max

We lifted anchors at 8 am, exited our anchorage behind Isla Carenero, turned into the wind and unfurled the main sail. We steered the Palace onto our course toward Aves de Barlavento and discovered that what winds we had (blowing 12-15 kts) were directly behind us. Once they died below 10 kts, Dale conceded and we dug into the big red bag that has been stuffed in the forward head since Puerto Rico and pulled the cruising chute out through the forward hatch. You may recall that the last time we flew our chute, it landed in the drink when the halyard severed.

It takes some time to rig the chute but with the Palace on an even keel in light winds, Dale had all of the lines run back and forth along the decks and around the rolled genoa in no time. Once he gave the signal, I hoisted the snuffed chute until Dale have the sign to stop. He tugged on the ropes that slipped the sock skyward and the giant sail billowed out with a big whomp.

Sailing just slightly off wind would raise our speed to over 7 kts but as we were going almost dead downwind, we had to be content with a more conservative 4.5-5 kts. The winds continued to moderate and a couple of hours later, we were doing no more than 3.5-4 kts. Not enough to make our anchorage with the sun high enough to dodge coral heads clearly.

We doused the chute, coiled the sheets, and dropped the whole apparatus back down the hatch and into the big red bag again. As we secured the halyard, we noticed that once again, the line had been chafed severely. We are baffled as to what is causing the chafing and certainly the line needs to be respliced before another use.

We turned on the “iron wind” and made the southern tip of the Aves de Sotavento by 2:30pm; we rounded into our anchorage by 3 and dropped the hook.

Moon Goddess, Excalabar, and Island Dreaming, boats we had met previously in our journeys were already here and had, in fact, moved from the next island over from us in Los Roques to here the day before. Joe & Diane from Moon Goddess were just coming in from snorkeling on the reef and dropped by to say hi. They told us about the garbage burn later in the evening and said that everyone was meeting there to leave behind a decorated stone with our boat names on them. They pointed out the reefs they had already explored and suggested mangrove routes that provided good views of the nesting birds. We promised to meet up with everyone later on the beach.

Once settled, we lowered the dinks and took off to explore a little. We ended up at the designated mangrove route that led to a tiny landing spot and walked the rest of the way to the beach.

We introduced Gerry & Nicky to everyone and joined the gathering on the beach to burn garbage. We’d thrown ours out on the garbage scowl the day before but tagged along to decorate the stones.

I am no artist but I left my childish drawing of a sailboat with our names and the date on a smooth stone with the others piled by the pit where the trash was burned.

Isla Carenero,
Los Roques,

Venezuela
11.53.111N
66.50.697W

A chorus line of seagulls lined up along our back arch at the crack of down this morning and proceeded to screech and squawk for attention. I’m not sure if they thought we were going to feed them or what. Instead, they had a banshee come looming up out of the companionway waving her arms and screeching right back at them. They were perched over the dinghy cover Dale had just washed all the tuna blood out of the other day and I didn’t figure he wanted to repeat the process to get gull guano off the sides.

Since I was up, I sat in the cockpit and watched the flocks of pelicans, gulls and terns diving for fish along the reefs. About 7:30, a fisherman came through the anchorage with his catch of lobster. He stopped by Orpailleur and through all of the hand waving, I could tell that Gerry was negotiating a price based upon the idea that the fisherman had to cut the tails off first. Apparently, they did not come to an agreement.

The fisherman moved on to the next two boats and by the time he got to us, his selection was rather small. Still Dale swapped a bottle of red wine (the white was refused) for 3 small lobsters. This was after they could not agree upon a dollar price once the lobsterman found out we didn’t have any Bolivars. I’m sure we all felt we got a good deal.

After breakfast, Dale & I took the dink over to the next cove to explore and ended up with a simple photo op with a few pelicans in the area. We returned to the Palace and donned our snorkel gear. There was a small reef off the back of our boat, so we paddled over and spent the next couple of hours fascinated with all of the fish. There were 100’s of large bonefish that swam by us; 1000’s of silversides, schools of several varieties of parrotfish, and the usual assortment of reef fish. A couple of small barracuda made sure we didn’t wander too far and an octopus helped by keeping a couple of beady eyes on us. Dale spotted a burr fish in the rocks and I snapped about half of his green eyes watching us warily in a photograph. If it hadn’t been for the fact that we were getting cold, I think we could have spent the whole day there swimming around the coral heads and seeing who lived in the broken bottle on the bottom.

We returned to the Palace and warmed ourselves in the sun after radioing Orpailleur to tell them that a great snorkeling spot lay just off their stern.

Later, Dale took the lobsters over to the beach and cleaned them for dinner. Gerry & Nicky joined us for the grilled dinner adding Thai chicken to the feast.

The next leg of our adventure will take us to the Aves (Ahh veys). After much discussion, we adjusted our previous thought of leaving at 9am, to leaving at 8am, so that we are certain to have good light to enter another “poorly charted“, “reef-studded” island group. Never a dull moment. At least it’s a simple day trip.

Isla Carenero,
Los Roques,

Venezuela
11.53.111N
66.50.697W

The first water taxi came roaring passed us at 6:30am this morning; so much for the weekend traffic idea.

Since we were up, Dale and I lowered the dinghy and started our day with a little ride around the Francisquis anchorage and into the inner anchorage beyond. Both were surrounded by beautiful white sand beaches already sporting the occasional brightly colored sun umbrella in the morning sun.

We returned to the Palace, hoisted the dinghy into the davits, lifted our anchor and made our way to El Gran Roque, where there was a little village that housed the GuardiaCoasta, the Guardia Nacional, Inparques and Autoridad Unica. We anchored in 10’ of water on a the shelf that extends a little way from the beach before dropping off into 100’s of feet of water. Our guide book directed that visiting yachts were to check in immediately with each of the authorities and we anticipated that each one would have their own fees. However, after much consternation as to what to do with the “transitoes,” they waved us off and we didn’t have to pay anything. Dale and Gerry, not wanting to look a gift horse in the mouth, made a hasty return to their respective boats, where once again, we lifted our anchors and made our way to another little island called Isla Carenero about 11 miles away.

Just as we were starting to round the island to enter into its anchorage, our chart plotter lost its satellite signal. I got it back for a second and then lost it again. Dale was already on the bow directing us around the various shallow spots, so it really didn’t matter today. I tried turning the chart plotter off, then on a couple of times and at least got the chart portion to work but it still wouldn’t connect to the satellite.

We anchored in 25’ and once we were secured, Dale went below and turned everything off and then back on and finally it reset itself and it worked as normal.

Due to its reliability, we’ve become lax in what had been our habit of writing down our longitude, latitude, heading and course over ground every couple of hours when under way. This was a reminder that there is a reason for doing things the old fashioned way and I will dig out our little book in which we wrote down this information so that we can start doing it again. (Not to worry Mom, we have 2 other GPSs that will give us the information to plot our course on paper charts, if needed).

After we settled in, Gerry & Nicky dropped their dinghy into the water and came by to pick us up for a little exploring to get the lay of the land. This island is more mangrove with pelicans, terns, and other fowl. Gerry told us that the water was very clear when he dove on his anchor, so we’ll be checking out the nearest reefs tomorrow. I’d also like to explore the inlet we passed coming into this anchorage. As it was upwind and would be a very wet ride, we put it off today as the O.P. Duck took on water with all of us in it and headed into the waves.

Dinner was on Orpailleur this evening. Gerry grilled steaks and Nicky added potatoes and salad. We took brownies with cream cheese filling for dessert. It’s a quiet little anchorage, so after a wonderful meal, we’re all looking forward to a good night’s rest.

Francisquis,
Los Roques,
Venezuela
11.57.342N
66.39.027W

Thank heavens each time we had to dance with a freighter in our path last night, Dale was on watch at the time. The first time, I woke up hearing Nicky on the radio telling Dale that from her perspective, a freighter was heading straight for us. Seconds later, Dale turned on the engine and I was scrambling out of bed and grabbing my life jacket. Apparently, the big guy had decided to go between the two sailboats.

The second time, Dale had been watching the approaching lights for about 30 minutes and knew, through the old adage about Constant Bearing, Decreasing Range, that we were in his way. That time, he rounded up and sailed behind the freighter as it passed in front of us.
On my watches, I was content to study the stars and with a cheat sheet in hand, was able to determine the various constellations; including the Southern Cross and the false cross. The first constellation I remember being taught as a child was the Big Dipper. Tonight as falling stars came streaking to Earth, I watched the Big Dipper reach down and touch the water just when it was Dale’s turn to come up.

On my morning watch, I saw several fish traveling with us, so . . . Feeling lucky, I tossed in a line. A while later, we saw a flock of birds and several dolphins directly ahead of us. We had no sooner gone through the birds when the line took off with a zing! I tightened the tension on the line and watched as the rod bent under the load. By this time, Dale was up and helped me get the rod out of the holder and into my lap as I sat on the back deck. About 5 minutes later, I landed a nice sized tuna. Dale leaned over and grabbed it with a gaff, while I ran for a camera. In the meantime, the dang thing splattered blood from one side of the boat to the other.

With the pictures taken, Dale pithed the fish through the eyes and blood spurted everywhere; I about lost my lunch; not from the blood but from the smell. I watched as he cut off the head and gutted the fish but it got to the point where I wanted as far away from that smell as I possibly could get. To his credit, he sliced about 5 good sized steaks rather quickly and sealed them in 3 bags (one inside the other) to keep the smell down. We hailed Orpailleur and informed them that fresh tuna steaks were on the menu for dinner later in the evening.

We made landfall about 11am and found the narrow entrance that separated the reefs we would be traveling between. Los Roques is a group of about 50 small islands over a 14 by 25 mile cruising area. The cruising guide calls the area “reef studded,” I’d call it a reef with navigable waters running through it and mangroves holding enough sand to create the occasional island. Of the first 4 boats we saw, only 1 was anchored; the other 3 (good sized ships) were permanent reminders of what could go wrong.

With Dale on the bow, we maneuvered through the blue-green shallow areas and followed the dark blue water along a path between 2 long reefs that led us north about 10 miles. It reminded us of the ICW in places; deep in the middle but outside of the channel meant certain grounding.

The northeast corner of this collection of islands holds the 4-5 islands that constitute the vacation area for the Venezuelans who come here in their private planes and motor yachts. We passed little islands that were no more than sand bars, covered in brightly colored sun umbrellas. We were surprised to see several Hunter sailboats, all of which were Venezuelan flagged.

We made our way to the anchorage behind Francisquis island and joined more than a dozen other boats. We chose a spot in front of a picnic area that looked like a cul-de-sac in the surrounding reefs. We dropped our anchor in 18’ of water close to the shore and backed into the cul-de-sac of water. We were just settling in when the local water taxis starting buzzing by us. We had anchored in the middle of their short cut. Since it was Sunday, we figured that it was weekend traffic and decided not to move.

As promised, we had tuna steaks for dinner. I made the side dishes ahead of time, then cleared out of the galley while Dale was kind enough to prep and grill the fish, then clean and rinse the galley to the point where all odor was eliminated. I stayed topside and upwind during the process. However, at dinner, I was right there with everyone else and helped gobble down the grilled fish.

Of course, our dinnertime conversation was about catching "the fish". There are those, who shall remain nameless, who have yet to land a fish. Nicky throws out her line from time to time and has gotten bites that have left teeth in her cedar plug and today something actually took the whole plug. Still she is rather disappointed in not having caught a fish herself.

The other problem is, who would clean it? Gerry faints if he gets more than 3 injections and adamantly states that he will not pith or gut a fish. However, he says that he will fillet a fish and has a sharp knife with which to do it. He says they have a strict ‘fillet and release’ policy on Orpailleur. Nicky is afraid that if they ever do catch a fish, she will have to do the cleaning because Gerry will be snorting an ammonia ampule at the first sight of blood (Sight! Wait till he smells it!!)

In any event, we’d love to be around when they do catch their first fish; I’m sure the event would keep us in stitches for weeks.

Cayo Herraduro,

LaTortuga,
Venezuela
10.59.596N
65.22.790W

Today we are again in awe of the beauty and tranquility of this anchorage. I sat in the cockpit all day either reading or gazing at the blue green colors of the water, the incredibly blue sky or blinding white beaches.

It was Gerry & Nicky’s turn to dink around the periphery, exploring what little is here and enjoying what is not. When they returned, we discussed how we would exit the bay after dark and make our way to Los Roques.

When the time came at 8 pm, we lifted our anchors and slowly crept out. Dale was on the bow with a megawatt flashlight and lit up the few boats that had found there way into the anchorage during the day. There was no moon and we had decided earlier in the day to remove our solar lights along the sides to help us maintain our night vision.

We set our heading and made a respectable 7-8 kts for a couple of hours. Then the wind shifted to aft of our beam and although we still had the 15-18 kts predicted, the sensation was that we were barely moving when in actuality, we maintained a 6 kts average throughout the night.

Cayo Herraduro,
LaTortuga,
Venezuela
10.59.596N
65.22.790W

Last night was another of those where you wish you had seat belts installed in your bed; and we weren’t even under way. So this morning it was unanimous that we’d move to another anchorage. We didn’t even dink around the anchorage to look at the air field or surrounding beach.

Instead, we lifted our anchors and moved 11 miles down the main island of Tortuga to a smaller one called Cayo Herraduro or Horseshoe Cay. Once we were behind the protective reefs, it was like finding a bit of heaven. One other boat was anchored behind the little island with its own lighthouse.

We cautiously made our way into the center of the shallow water and dropped our anchors in 9’ of water. The water was a beautiful turquoise color. As soon as we could, we jumped in to check out the local life. There were red star fish, tube worms, sea cucumbers, a snake, various small fish and one irate little worm attacking our anchor. We were rather disappointed that the water was still murky but the calm waters and serene view made it one of those special places that we’ll always remember.

After Dale replaced a hinge on our companionway door, we lowered the dink and checked out the island by putt putting the length of it. There were a few fishing shacks that had little Catholic shrines for each one at one end and a faded red and white lighthouse in the middle. We made our way to the opposite end and got out for a walk along the two beaches that came together. The beach that ran along the inside of the cay was composed of a sugary white sand, while the beach on the windward side was a more coarse grain. They came together at the end where we had landed our dinghy. We donned our snorkel gear and headed in again to check out the reefs on the inside.

The coral wasn’t as colorful as we’ve seen in other places and again, we were disappointed in the lack of clarity in the water but there was an abundance of reef fish and 2 particularly large porcupine fish that I chased with a camera for a while. In fact all of the fish seemed to be larger specimens of the reef fish we’ve seen so for.

We had dinner on Orpailleur this evening and we all agreed that we should have skipped Blanquilla and come straight here. There’s something magical about this place and by sundown 2 other boats had made their way into the anchorage to share in the magic. Or get a decent night’s rest.

Photo of shrine from the camera of Orpailleur.

Playa Caldera,
La Tortuga,
Venezuela
10.57.328N
65.13.642W

We got a good night’s sleep and hoisted anchor at 6am bound for La Tortuga. The winds were cranking 20+kts and within minutes of securing the anchor, the engine was cut, the sails were trimmed and we were flying at 7-8 kts. The seas were a kindly 3-4’ with the occasional 6’ thrown in to keep you on your toes, so the 66 miles were going by quickly. By 10am though, the predicted 12-15 kts settled in and we were cruising a respectable 6kts.

Dale started a new book, so I tweaked the sails and autopilot for most of the day. It was a very pleasant sail. Except for Orpailleur, we saw only 3 other boats all day. We heard the Venezuelan Navy hail motor vessels and ask them to identify themselves a few times, but never saw the “warship” they were on.

Throughout the day, however, the winds continued to diminish and by 2pm, the 7-9 kts weren’t going to get us into our anchorage before dark, so we were forced to once again, turn on the engine.

LaTortuga, is another low lying desert island which has miles of white sandy beaches. The eastern most tip has an airstrip with a couple of hangers and a few fishing shacks but that’s it. We chose Playa Caldera to anchor in as it provided a half moon bay and appeared to be sheltered even further by some reefs.

As we approached the entrance to the bay, the shell of a catamaran lay grounded on the beach; we steered an extra wide path to round up into the anchorage. We soon saw our depth meter rise from 50’ to 15’ rather quickly but continued on until we were in about 10’ and tucked up inside away from the swells rounding the point. There were only 2 other boats in the anchorage. Talk about getting away from it all.

We invited Gerry & Nicky over for dinner and as we ate, we were all astounded with the winds picking up again to well over 20 kts. It was howling and the Palace started dancing on her anchor chain. We feel that we are very secure having dropped our anchor in sand and felt its tug when it dug in to snap us around smartly. But when the wind starts whistling and the wind generator sounding like a DC10 winding up, it gets a bit unnerving. I’m sure transferring from the dinghy back to Orpailleur must have been a challenge for Gerry & Nicky but I’m glad that they were able to share dinner with us.

I think we’ll be staying here another day but I wouldn’t mind moving to another bay. Both Dale and Gerry spoke of seeing huge jelly fish in the water which already looks murky from the top and I was looking forward to the exceptional snorkeling I’ve read about.

Playa Yaque, La Blanquilla,

Venezuela
11.50.173N
64.38.816W

The winds finally picked up during the night and we made good time to LaBlanquilla transiting the 93 miles in 14.5 hours. When Dale came on watch at 5am, I had taken the suggestion of the guide book and positioned us square between the 6 little islands of Los Hermanos, having first checked to make sure that we could go between them. Orpailleur had chickened out and went around all of them (Gerry’s description, not mine). Dale took over at this point and he tells me that when the sun finally rose, there wasn’t much to see.

Even our final destination of LaBlanquilla, is a desert island with hardly a sole on it. However, as we pulled into the anchorage at 8:30 am to join the 3 other boats, the monthly Wind Jammer Cruise line came in and anchored behind us, depositing about 100 people on the shore for beach walking and snorkeling. They had no sooner dropped off a dozen loads of passengers, when they started rounding them back up again. They were loaded, with anchors stowed and gone by 11:30am.

Dale had gone down for a nap, when the LaBlanquilla GuardiaCoasta came to call. A loud knock and a hasty call down the companionway from me had him up. Five young men representing Venezuela came along side in their panga and asked if we spoke Espanol. Oh boy, here we go!

We secured their boat to ours and for some unknown reason all 5 boarded our boat and sat in the cockpit. The one who spoke the most English (and looked like a Martin Sheen offspring), led the conversation. For the next hour, they used all of their English and we used all of our Spanish to complete what appeared to be a safety inspection. They never actually descended into our living quarters but simply asked the questions and we answered. They were all very polite and seemed impressed with having ice in the water we provided when asked. Once our paperwork was completed, they thanked us and left. Considering some of the officials we’ve met in other countries, these guys were great.

Gerry radioed over later asking if we would be willing to continue on to Tortuga tomorrow since there really wasn’t much to see or do here. So, what little exploring we did, was done in the after noon with a dinghy ride around the leeward side of the island dotted with caves, as far as what is called Americano Bay.

According to the cruising guide, an American by the name of Blankenship built himself a house on the cliffs overlooking a beautiful bay. We found what was left and decided that he must have been a bachelor and this was his little honey spot. The house (from what we could deduce) was mostly patio and bar with what may have been changing rooms and showers. It overlooked the ocean, the bay and a grotto at the base of the arch in the coral leading from the ocean to the bay. I wish we had snorkeled there but we ended up snorkeling in the rocks on the beach in front of our boats. The water was very murky and we quit pretty quickly. We’ve been spoiled.

Tomorrow morning at 6 am, we’ll head south to Tortuga. We’re doing this to break up the long transit to Los Roques and it provides a better angle on the wind. We’re anticipating a fast sail and the way the wind is howling at the moment, I doubt that we’ll be disappointed.

Testigo Grande,
Los Testigos,
Venezuela
11.22.917N
63.08.123W

Heather radioed this morning to see if we would be interested in exploring the sand dunes today. It sounded like a great idea so after we finished with our morning chores, we picked up Gerry & Nicky and made our way to the little beach where we would leave our dinghies.

There was a mountain of sand in front of us and as we tied our dinghies to the trees at the base, we started looking for a way to climb up. Dale and Gerry led the way and made it to the top. They shouted back down that the best way to climb was to do switchbacks, zigzagging our way to the top. This worked but it was still straight up and considering we were all wearing “Croks” (rubber shoes with holes in them), we were lifting shoe loads of sand with each step and getting our exercise for the day.

Nicky has bad knees to begin with and a third of the way up, decided a swim at the bottom was more to her liking. Gerry joined her, so that left Scott & Heather and Dale & me to explore on behalf of the rest. I took a couple of breaks but did finally make it to the top where an iguana met me and kindly posed for a picture.

We crested the top and beheld a desert stretching before us that ended at the water’s edge. A goat and her tiny kid were scavenging for leaves but made a hasty retreat when they saw us coming their way. The descent to the other side was less severe and we rewarded ourselves with a dip in the water when we reached it.

The breaking waves reminded me of California where you could wade out up to your knees and seconds later be crushed under an avalanche of water.. We were the only people in sight. I snapped loads of pictures but unfortunately, not many are without water drops or vapor on the lens.

On the way back we saw a sea creature rising from the sand but it didn’t seem interested in coming after us.

We returned to our respective boats and tried to nap for the remainder of the afternoon. Some of us were better at the attempt than others. At 5 pm, we started making our final preparations and by 6 pm, we lifted our anchors and pointed our bows towards La Blanquilla. We had hoped for the perfect sailing conditions that we had encountered on our way to Los Testigos but unfortunately, the winds were just a little too far aft.

First we tried sailing with both sails but the main would blanket the jib, which would cause it to flap and jerk the boat when it filled again. Then we decided to furl in the main and just use the jib. This worked as long as we had fairly strong, steady winds but if the wind eased below 10 kts, it would flap again.

As it happens, I’m not one who likes to sail downwind as there is no sense of speed and if the waves are following (as is the usual case) you have a tendency to wallow. Within an hour or two of leaving and traveling at speeds of 3-4kts, Dale was ready to throw me overboard with my never ending suggestions on how to improve the situation. So, of course, when he went below and it was my watch, I implemented a few of them. This meant unfurling the mainsail without turning into the wind and rolling in the jib in the same conditions. I did both a little at a time so as not to arouse suspicion. By the time it was his watch, I had swapped the two sails and had gained about ½ -1 kt of speed.

When he came up for his watch 3 hours later, I told him that he should be proud of me for the fact that I let him sleep without waking him when two ships passed us in the night; one within one mile of us, setting off the radar alarm, the other showing red lights (and we all know how much I love those). But you know, I’m getting better at reading the radar and getting the most information I can out of it. It was only after my little debriefing that he noticed that the jib was missing. He added a preventer to the boom and let the sail out more which increased our speed at least another knot. Now we were cooking! At least we were sailing in the 6 kts range!

Testigo Grande,
Los Testigos,
Venezuela
11.22.917N
63.08.123W

First thing this morning, Dale collected Scott and Gerry and headed to the GuardiaCoasta station on the little island further down from where we are anchored to ‘check in’. Dale reports that the young officers were very polite and spoke English. He had taken his various cheat sheets, books and English to Spanish dictionary with him to help in the communication process and was much relieved when it wasn’t necessary. Although, the station does not clear you in for customs purposes, it is suggested that you let them know that you are transiting the area.

I can’t say that we did anything of interest today. We were entertained with the frigate birds diving for fish and saw a couple of small turtles between the two boats.

Gerry came over and the guys went over the charts that we have. The paper ones that we purchased in Trinidad, we aren’t going to be using after all, so we gave them to him and he had some software charts that provided greater detail than the ones we have of the Caribbean islands we just passed through. I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to upload the software charts and ended up getting an error that can only be fixed by connecting to the internet. I suspect that we’ve violated some copyright code that recognizes which computer it was originally loaded onto. Oh well, we’ve managed to survive so far.

We cleaned the Palace and made a rib roast on the barbeque. The last time we had done this, we ended up cooking the roast to a cinder; Gerry & Nicky were our guests that evening as well. As I recall, they were good sports about it and picked around the extra crispy bits to find something edible. This time, Dale was jumping up every 15 minutes to check on it. Good thing too. Our little canister of fuel had emptied and he caught it before the temperature dropped too far. Still, we managed to cook it too long for the medium rare middle I was going for.

Our scare for the night came after I had gone to bed but Dale was still up reading. I awoke to what sounded like something hitting our boat. It was definitely loud. Dale jumped up and went topside with a flashlight and I grabbed our big megawatt spotlight. We searched every inch of the boat, the mast, the boom, the hardtop and the water surrounding us looking for what could have made the noise. When nothing could be found, Dale told me to start looking inside the boat; maybe something had fallen. I checked the forward cabin and head and found nothing. Nothing appeared to be out of place in the main salon area, so I started looking around the back cabin.

We started to analyze what each of us had heard and the direction that we thought it had come from and suddenly Dale found it; with his foot. One of the water glasses we hang from a stemware caddy on the overhead, had fallen. I had made little quilted koozies for each one to keep them from hitting each other while underway and bungee cords around the stems to keep them in place. The bungee cords had been removed at dinnertime and it had fallen straight down, landing on a rug but breaking the stem. They are rather substantial glasses so I guess that was the reason for the loud thud we heard but I’m still amazed that Dale didn’t realize the noise came from directly in front of where he was sitting. At least it wasn’t the radar reflector crashing down; that one gave us a startle too!

Testigo Grande,
Los Testigos,
Venezuela
11.22.917N
63.08.123W

When the morning dawned, there were islands on the horizon. We had pointed our bow a few degrees south of where our intended destination lay in hopes that the 2-4kt current would lift us up and in the right direction. It did but we tweaked the autopilot a few times after checking our progress on the chart plotter.

On my 2-5am shift I had shaken out the reef as we had been reading a constant 12-14 kts of wind from our aft port quarter. We were flying but Scott Free and Orpailleur were starting to pull away from us; this at least kept us in the pack. A half hour later we started getting gusts up to 25 kts of wind before returning to the 12 kts regular ones. The autopilot did fine at the lower wind speeds but with the higher gusts, I had given it too much sail to handle and it would round us up and then off course. So we ended up hand steering when the wind would gust and then back to the auto pilot when it died back down. I think next time, I’ll just leave it alone and fall behind.

Approaching the Los Testigos islands we had seen flocks of birds circling ahead of us and as we got closer, we saw they were feasting on the fish jumping out of the water. What we hadn’t seen until we were surrounded, were the dolphins. There must have been a hundred of them. They were very dark on the whole but some were mottled, and I swear I saw a couple that looked like they had a red tinge to them. I ran for my camera but was too slow to capture anything.
We dropped our anchors behind the main island of Los Testigos called Testigo Grande, having traveled 99 miles in 13 hours. Not bad at all.

The Los Testigos are small, desert like islands with a very small population of mostly fishermen. However, there is a beautiful white sand beach and runs along the leeward side and this is where we chose to anchor amongst 10 other boats. It is quite deep until you get fairly close to shore but we were able to find a patch of sand in 20’ to sink our anchor in. Once settled and certain that we weren’t going anywhere, we went below and finally got some sleep.

Later in the afternoon, we lowered the dink, collected Gerry & Nicky and explored the little island. There’s not much here and life must be quite extreme for those who do live here. Still, there is a raw beauty in these remote, desolate islands.

St. Georges, Grenada
12.02.630N
61.44.898W

About 9 this morning, the two crews of Orpailleur and Gypsy Palace dinked over to the dock in front of the supermarket and began our search of the aisles to re-provision. I found just about everything I had on my list and Nicky put a pretty good dent in hers. Although she did have to make a second trip a couple of hours later for those items she forgot to pick up.

We spent the morning putting everything away, hauling the trash to shore, then finally securing the boat for the overnight passage. About 3pm, we hoisted our anchor and made our way back out to the anchorage in front of the lagoon. We dropped it again in deep sand and it immediately grabbed a firm hold on the bottom.

Orpailleur stopped at the marina dock to fill up with water and pick up some gas for their dinghy and then came outside. Gerry wanted to hoist the main sail that they had put back on yesterday to make sure that everything was as it should be before taking off. Apparently it was, as they soon joined us in dropping their anchor in the sand. Scott Free came out last and took a position slightly behind us. We all tried to take naps, but of course, when you’re trying to take a nap, it won’t happen. So let’s just say we tried to rest for the remainder of the day.

About 7pm. Dale started getting fidgety. He checked to make sure our running lights were working, then started carting our passage making safety gear topside. He checked and rechecked various hatches and switches. He reread the cruising guide regarding the suggested route. At a quarter to 8, Gerry radioed to go over the same last minute details. I was wondering which one of them would give in first. Scott Free joined in the discussion and at 8pm, on the dot, we unfurled our main sail and lifted our anchor.

We eased out of the anchorage and made our way around the southern coast of Grenada. We unfurled our jib to the first reefing point and turned off the engine. There was hardly any difference. We were still making progress at about 6 kts. After we passed the tip of Grenada and were more exposed to the trade winds and the northwesterly current, we scooted along with speeds that reached above the 9kts range. This was pretty cool, except that at one point it was so dark, we couldn’t tell if an approaching light was an airplane on final approach to the airport or a boat trying to make landfall after dark. It was an airplane. About this time, I noticed we were darker than usual; our running light had failed. This has occurred before and usually one of us makes our way to the bow and wiggles the connection a little and its good for the rest of the night. Tonight when Dale made his way forward and tried to wiggle the connection, he ended up with a broken bulb in his hand. Oops! Good thing we had a few spares. A couple of more trips back and forth and we were back in business.

It was a great sail. It was even better when the ¾ moon rose later and we could see more of our surroundings. We’re not positive, we need to check with the Coopers to make sure, but we thought we saw the Southern Cross quite late. We know that it can be seen about this time of year from this latitude but since we’re not as familiar with that constellation as we are with the ones in the northern hemisphere, we’ll ask someone who should know. Tomorrow.

Photo from the camera of Orpailleur.

St. Georges, Grenada
12.02.630N
61.44.898W

Dear Family and Friends, I've gone back and added some pictures to the posts dated 3/25/2007 to date. Enjoy!

What a great sail!!

The wind was blowing too strongly to put Gerry & Nicky’s main sail back on so they elected to just use the jib and motorsail the few hours to Grenada. It was the first time in a long while that the Palace flew in first. We saw 9kts when we were surfing at one point and several times we were traveling at our hull speed of 8.5 kts.

When we crossed Kick ‘em Jenny, the underwater volcano, we tossed in some shredded medical records Dale still gets from time to time. Its our favorite place to dump confidential trash, figuring that 2000-3000’ deep and miles from shore is the best place to do it.

Of course, we ran into the 30-32kts coming around and off the mountains as we neared the island and then about half way down the leeward side, we had to turn on the engine as we had lost all wind. Still, we made it in by 1pm, sailed around the Queen Mary II, and anchored on the outside the lagoon in deep sand.

We hailed Scott Free, who were anchored inside the lagoon to let them know that we had made it and were surprised that they were staying an extra day to complete some final repairs to their prop shaft and would be leaving tomorrow night when we planned to. They told us that although the supermarkets were closed today, they were scheduled to be open tomorrow morning. Great news! We’d stick to our original plans.

Orpailleur approached not too long after that and radioed to let us know that they needed to take on water and would be going into the lagoon with the hopes that they could put their main sail on in the more protected area. So we joined the crowd. Well, sort of.

When we entered the lagoon, we chose a spot between Scott Free and Orpailleur to drop the hook. When we settled back, we had great spacing among all of the boats around us. But when we backed down, nothing was holding us. So, up it came. We moved forward a bit more and although this time it appeared to have grabbed, we settled into a swing that took us too close to another boat and moved again.

Our next attempt found us on the far side of Orpailleur and next to a 65’ boat. This time, Heather on Scott Free radioed us and said that the bottom was soft mud and to let it sink in for a while before trying to back down on it. This we did and seemed to settle with good spacing. So Dale dropped the dinghy and went over to help Gerry & Nicky reattach their main sail. As they were doing this, the wind shifted and the 65’ boat swung in front of us with only a few feet to spare. Too close!

Dale had only stepped into the dinghy to return when I had the Palace up and running. He was exasperated with having to move constantly but didn’t like the arrangement any more than I did. We saw two more places that we could try before throwing in the towel and heading back out. One was to the back of the pack that had plenty of room. Thank heavens this one worked. We dropped the hook and plenty of chain, then sat the rest of the afternoon letting it sink in. When the wind picked up, we didn’t move. Finally!

Later, we all gathered on Scott Free before heading over to the marina for dinner and discussion of our transit plans. We’d all received the same information from various cruisers that we could “Q” flag it through the northern, outer most islands of Venezuela without having to take a detour to the southern island of Margarita. This was more to our liking as we didn’t want to get that close to the mainland.

So after our provisioning tomorrow morning and uploading pictures to our past posts, we’ll move back outside to make a evening departure.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

Today was the big day! Orpailleur was being returned to the water. After we had done our morning chores, we dinghied in and found Gerry waiting on the dock with papers in hand ready to check out. He had arranged for a ride over to Hillsborough mid-morning. Dale handed him the trash that needed to be tossed and zipped back to the Palace for our papers. I joined Nicky in the air conditioned chalet and noodled with the idea of what it would take to bring the “yacht club” to being a viable business. When the guys returned from checking us out of customs, they joined me in toying with the idea, there is so much wasted potential here. When our stomachs started growling, we came back to reality and walked down the beach to the pizza café for lunch.

Dale and I returned to the Palace and a bit later, John (our Trini neighbor) came by to invite all of us over to their boat this evening.

At 3 pm, we headed back in and watched as Orpailleur was moved from where it had rested and been painted over the last few days to the area where Gerry could pressure clean the topsides. He figured that cleaning the boat with recycled water was better than leaving all of the blue dust in every crevice.

Orpailleur was lowered into the water and after checking that nothing was leaking, she was moved forward and secured to the slip. I grabbed their dink and towed it to them as Dale helped Gerry reattach the back stay. They moved their main sail (which Gerry and Dale had picked up from the sail loft on their way back from Hillsborough) from the dock to the boat, slipped her lines and cautiously crept back out into the harbor around the reefs that lie in front of the haul out entrance.

We had just enough time to prepare something to take over to Panacea (John & Patty’s boat), so I borrowed a couple of onions from Nicky and made an appetizer of brie with caramelized onions and dried cranberries.

We picked up Gerry & Nicky and joined John & Patty on Panacea and met Linda & Peter off Eclipse. Panacea is a 43’ Endeavor which had a huge cockpit perfect for entertaining. We talked about anything and everything but mostly about our Trini connection and places that we’ve seen or want to see.

At one point, we watched a 50’ foot boat come in long after dark and head straight for the reef in front of the haul out facility. I was all for alerting them and thank heavens, Patty tried to alert them on the radio by just announcing that the boat entering Tyrrel Bay was about to run aground. A few seconds later, they made an abrupt turn and turned away from it only to keep moving forward further and further into the anchorage. At one point, we saw them turn around and head back the way they had come and possibly run aground a few yards from where they had originally been warned about. They backed away and we ended up losing our attention on them. My impression was that they were trying to tie up to the haul out pier which is hard enough to navigate in the daylight. I have no idea where they ended up. Hopefully, somewhere safe.

By 7:30, Dale was moving us towards the dinghy, in spite of the fact that we kept coming up with more and more things we wanted to talk about. However, we and Orpailleur’s crew were back on our respective boats by 8pm so that we could run our gensets without fear of keeping the entire anchorage awake too late.

We promised to help Gerry & Nicky reattach their main sail in the morning about 7am, so that we can leave for Grenada by 8am. If we can provision tomorrow afternoon (doubtful considering its Easter weekend) we’ll make our move to Los Testigos tomorrow night. If we have to wait until Saturday to provision, we’ll transit Saturday night.

Although I’ll continue to write daily, the outer islands of Venezuela are remote and I’ve not heard that there is WiFi available. This means that we’ll not be able to post anything after Grenada, until we get to Bonaire, and I'm not sure what we'll find in Grenada as we‘re going somewhere new. Until the next time, wish us well.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

This morning we all rendezvoused at Orpailleur. Last night during our dinnertime discussion, we had asked Gerry & Nicky what plans they had to scrub because Gerry was tied up doing his own work in the yard. One of the items mentioned was that they had wanted to take their main sail off to have some extra chaffing guards sewn onto it. They had already spoken with the sail loft when we first arrived and knew that it could be done, they just hadn’t had the time to take the sail off. So, we decided that we would help them out.

At 8am, Dale, Mike & Nicky disengaged the lazy jack system they have in place and took the main sail off the boom. Terri and I were on the ground and as they lowered the sail to the ground, we flaked it so that it could be rolled up and put into a sail bag. Then Mike volunteered to help Nicky and I take it to the sail loft. Gerry had been painting since 7:30am, so that they could keep to their schedule of being splashed tomorrow.

Dale & Mike put the sail bag into the duck and Nicky and I ferried it across the bay to the sail loft with Mike & Terri following in their dink behind us. We beached the dinks in front of the sail loft and Mike carried the bag up to the door. As luck would have it, they weren’t open. However, we did see the proprietor dropping his anchor just behind where we had landed and could see that he was on the way. I’m not sure anyone asked where he had sailed in from.

On our way back, we took a side trip through the mangrove bays that act as hurricane holes in case of emergency. When they’re not being used for hurricane holes, they are oyster beds. Besides oysters, there were hundreds of upside down jellyfish in the bays. We worked our way all the way back as far as it went, then turned around and came out again. It was remarkably quiet and if we had gone later in the morning when the sun was higher, we might have seen more.

We waved our good-bys to Terri & Mike at the end of our little excursion. They plan to continue their exploration of the smaller Grenadine islands before finally making their way back to Trini where they'll leave MTNest for hurricane season. We’ll miss them but plan on keeping up with them with perhaps a visit down the road.

In spite of the lack of workers, rain for almost an entire day, Orpailleur is on schedule to be splashed tomorrow. Gerry has to be commended that he stuck it out and kept everything on schedule doing the work himself (with a little help from his friends). However, he’s paying the price. He was troubled with tennis elbow before he started and now is in quite a bit of pain. Dale’s offered to take care of it for him but Gerry’s declined. Apparently, he’s more than a bit squeamish about needles.

We finished our day once again in the chateau. Nicky had offered their shower if we wanted to use it, so tonight I took advantage of the offer and headed up with my “girl soap” and shampoo. It was luxurious to take a long hot shower instead of being careful not to waste a single drop. After that, Nicky and I whipped up dinner with what was left in our refrigerators. We have to do some fresh food provisioning before we head off to more remote islands. At the moment, Nicky has a couple of onions and I have a couple of tomatoes and potatoes. Otherwise, there’s not a fresh vegetable between us.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W


It rolled horribly during the night. A swell was wrapping around the island and into the anchorage. At one point I got up and saw that Scott Free was rolling worse than we were. I guess no one was getting any sleep.

We awoke to rain and it continued to rain off and on all day. It wasn’t looking hopeful for Orpailleur to get its bottom paint on.

Scott and Heather from Scott Free dropped by to see if we were still on schedule to depart and make Grenada on Thursday. We discussed the various routes through the outer islands of Venezuela and what information we had on the method of doing it. Our primary question is whether we’ll be allowed to "Q" flag it through or if we’ll have to check in at Margarita, which is a day south of our intended route.

I dropped Dale and another load of laundry off at the Yacht Club and returned to run the genset and make water and start a macaroni salad for dinner.

A couple of hours later, he called to be picked up. It seems Gerry was once again working on his boat alone. Workers would stop by to see how he was doing but would continue on to sit under another boat and do nothing. When the yard manager came by and asked how he was doing, Gerry let him know in no uncertain terms that he was not pleased with the fact that there were no workers. At that point, all of the chipping and sanding was completed, it just needed the barrier coat of paint, followed by the layers of antifouling paint.

Later when MTNest came in, we swung by to say hi and ended up picking up Mike to head in to check on Orpailleur’s progress. You can imagine our surprise when we found Gerry now painting his boat. However, he did have at least one worker with him. The barrier coat had already been applied and they were rushing to get the 1st coat of antifouling on before the rain came down hard. Luckily, it was just a heavy mist and they were able to complete the first coat.

Looks like we’re still on schedule for a Thursday transit to Grenada. However, due to the holiday schedule here, where they are closed Friday through Monday, we figure it will be in our best interests to check out in Hillsborough (around the corner) before the overtime charges take effect and "Q" flag it in Grenada where we’ll stop overnight to re-provision.

I was able to pick up my laundry and once again our cockpit has become a laundry line for the night. The enclosure makes it nice to hang our clothes out to dry even when its raining.

Tonight, we’ll gather for dinner on MTNest. This is where we’ll part once again for an unknown time. Whereas we met Scott Free in St. Augustine at the very beginning of our trip and ran into them when they left their boat in Trini, we buddy boated with MTNest for several months from Luperon to Virgin Gorda and then met up with them again in Puerto Rico for a month or so before running into them again in St. Lucia. They’ve invited us to visit them in Minnesota which means that it will have to be in the summertime or Dale & I will freeze to death; we haven’t been in snow in 20 years.

Photo from the camera of Orpailleur.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W

OK, it’s Monday and still no workers showed up to work on Orpailleur. As soon as we found out, I dropped Dale off at the yard to help Gerry. They were “loaned” the only 2 sanders available and sanded all day.

I headed back to the Palace to run the genset and make some lunch to take back to them, before dropping off laundry at the little “Yacht Club” next door to be washed.

After lunch, I dinked back to our boat and ran the genset again, made water and started making dinner. I was hailed on the radio to come pick up the enclosure panel from the sail loft, so back I dinked to the yard to check on the laundry and pick up Nicky; someone needs to help me land the dink.

At this point, the guys looked like Smurfs! In spite of the fact that they were both wearing face masks and goggles, every inch of them was covered with blue dust. Gerry looked particularly Smurffy when he placed his white face mask on his head like a little hat when he took it off to speak.

At the sail loft, I found the panel is not as finished as I would have like it to be but it will get us home and is infinitely better than duck tape.

Landing the dink at the beach in front of the sail loft wasn’t nearly the chore as getting it back into the water, pushing it out far enough to get the engine down without hitting the ground, getting into it and leaving without looking like fools. Of course, Nicky and I got the giggles as soon as the first wave knocked us back. After about 3 tries and realizing that we were fighting an incoming tide, we finally made it, with all of our shoes, a fair amount of sand and with the full knowledge that the locals sitting under the shade tree where splitting their sides laughing at our actions.

I dropped Nicky off at the yard and went back to the Palace to wash up all of the dishes I used and to run a laundry line in the cockpit. (Note to Dale: I did not use every pan in the galley; there was one left!)

I dropped an enchilada casserole off at the chateau to cook, along with a towel and some clean clothes for Dale and picked up the laundry to take back to the boat. I hung the laundry in the cockpit, then dinked to the store to grab some sodas for dinner.

When I returned to the chateau, I was told my husband needed assistance in getting clean. They weren’t kidding. I ended up using a nylon wash net to get the paint dust off his face and out of his eyes and ears and then used a hand brush to get the paint off the back of his neck, his elbows, the backs of his arms and legs. He complained like a five year old but was squeaky clean when done.

Once both the guys were scrubbed and clean, we sat down for dinner and the ice cream bars we had purchased a couple of days ago. Nicky & I learned that an electrician came by today to track down the electrical problem from yesterday and found a power cord on the boat next to them was bad and dumping 220 volts into the ground which ultimately found its way to Orpailleur. Once the power cord was repaired, the problem went away.

Tonight, we are all exhausted and the anchorage is quiet. Gerry & Nicky aren’t getting zapped, I’m no longer zooming back and forth in the dink on all of my errands and Dale escaped the shower with some skin left.

Photos from the camera of Orpailleur.

Tyrrel Bay, Carriacou
12.27.355N
61.29.317W


Happy 4th Birthday Valerie!! We love you and miss you.

Happy Birthday Gerry ! You know you’re getting older when . . . You feel like the morning after and you didn’t go anywhere the night before.

It certainly wasn’t much of a birthday celebration for Gerry today but he did get a shock! It had rained during the night and when he climbed the ladder up to their boat, he got shocked by an electrical current when he grabbed the railing. Unfortunately, his warning to Nicky was a moment too late and she got her zap too! After shutting everything down on their boat, and checking the possibilities, they are pretty certain that it isn’t stemming from them. Still, it’s one more thing that needs to be followed up on.

After that, he & Dale chipped paint all day. I cleaned our life lines and tried to contribute by making lunch for everyone. We ended up at the pizza shop for pasta dinners. Nicky got a big kick out of the cows making their way home along the beach in front of the café at sundown.
I wish I could add more, but there are days that just don’t have anything worth writing about.